By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

I spent the entirety of Saturday’s Coke Zero 400 in Kurt Busch’s pit stall. Dodge brand president and my old One Lap buddy Ralph Gilles was there, as was the director of Dodge Motorsports, both glued to the race along with the rest of the team. Everyone was super-accommodating about letting me get right up to the pit wall with my camera, and though I usually like to scurry all over to a variety of track vantage points during a race, this was such a primo spot that I couldn’t stand to leave. Not even for a minute. Read more…

Continue reading "In The No. 2 Pit At Daytona" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

All week, everyone’s been acting like Kurt’s win at the non-points All-Star race last weekend here in Charlotte more or less doomed him to lose the 600. Rolling the Blue Deuce into victory lane, he made monkeys out of all of them. Tonight was actually Busch’s first points win at Charlotte in 20 starts. Looks like the All-Star was the best possible warm-up.

NASCAR coverage brought to you by Valvoline Engine Guarantee–the first and only motor oil in the industry that will guarantee your engine up to 300,000 miles. *Registration required, some limitations apply.

Continue reading "Kurt Busch Wins the Coca-Cola 600" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

The race had barely run three laps when Kurt Busch got into it with David Gilliland’s No. 38 and mashed up his car’s rear clip. It looked like it was going to be bad for Kurt as he ended up a lap down after the stop, but Patrick Carpentier spun just a few laps later, clipping Carl Edwards and barely missing Jimmie Johnson. Kurt Busch scored the "lucky dog" from the ensuing caution, meaning he was advanced back up to the lead lap. I was in the No. 02′s pit box when Kurt brought it in for on-the-fly repairs. Here’s the view!

Continue reading "Wrecking Already!" »

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

NASCAR driver Kurt Busch, star of Penske Racing’s Dodge team, got handed the keys to the 25,000th Dodge Viper by Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli after the vehicle rolled off the line during the celebration of the Viper’s milestone today. The video of the event involves a bit of footage of the Conner Ave Assembly Plant in Detroit, where Vipers have been built by hand since the car’s production debut in 1992. As for Kurt Busch, the driver who bump-drafted teammate Ryan Newman to victory at this year’s Daytona 500, he’s generally most famous for his ongoing feud with Tony Stewart, which culminated most recently in Busch ramming the Great Pumpkin’s Home Depot Toyota with his Dodge during Daytona practice. Mopar probably won’t have to worry about the hot-head driver failing to get their Viper into the news at some point soon. Congrats, Kurt!

Via WorldCarFans

By Jen

Editor

Jeff Gordon—whose Nicorette Impala, despite the somewhat unconventional sponsorship package, was looking really spiffy in its new green-flame paintjob—took a freakin’ hard lick in the last five laps of the record-setting carnage at Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the Sprint Cup race on Sunday afternoon. The wall he ran up against was the rock-solid infield wall, which doesn’t have any of the give of the Steel and Foam Energy-Reduction (SAFER) barrier that insulates the outside perimeter of the track from the grandstands. Gordon’s car disintegrated under the force of the brutal impact, throwing its hood into the windshield and spewing parts, sheet metal and fluids into the path of the oncoming pack, but luckily managing not to damage any other cars with its barrage of shrapnel. In the video, you can see the Impala’s whole radiator lying at least a hundred feet from the car after getting thrown free, and in a later interview, Gordon said he looked down after the crash and saw only a hole where the transmission used to be. Gordon was okay and relatively unruffled in the midst of a race where wall contact took out many of NASCAR’s big dogs—including Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart, who hobbled painfully away from his wrecked Toyota earlier in the race. The incident brings to mind the real challenge of track safety at speeds approaching 200 mph. While it’s easy to get caught up in the popular disdain for NASCAR’s stringent rules, and while I’m as fascinated by a big wreck as the next fan, it’s obviously no fun at all when the drivers get hurt. It’s a relief to see that the blimpy Car of Tomorrow is actually doing its job, taking the brunt of the most punishing impacts so that the drivers don’t have to.

By Jen

Editor

So those’re Challenger mules—Charger-bodied, but with all the new Challenger internals. Watch as a bunch of off-duty NASCAR Dodge drivers—Kasey Kahne, Bobby Labonte, and Daytona 500 runner-up Kurt Busch—put the mules through their paces. Those who like to endlessly parrot that tired line about how NASCAR drivers can "only turn left" might be surprised at how adeptly the guys throw these cars around.

In the final laps at the Daytona 500 yesterday, it looked like Tony Stewart was going to take the checkered flag. But it just wasn’t to be. After a botched draft attempt involving teammate Kyle Busch, Ryan Newman and Kurt Busch of Penske Racing were able to squeak by Stewart, dropping the popular driver to the third position, and crushing his hopes to win the Great American Race. For a lap-by-lap breakdown of the action, head over to NASCAR’s official site, and expect to see our shots from the race posted tomorrow morning.

NASCAR drivers Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch have been smacked with probation, and will be monitored closely during the first six races of the Sprint Cup season. The penalty was levied as a result of last week’s incident of on-track road rage during practice, where Busch repeatedly rammed the side of Stewart’s No. 20 Chevrolet on the way to the pits in retaliation for being rear-ended. In what was supposed to be a cool-down meeting with NASCAR officials immediately following the altercation, Stewart allegedly threw a punch at Busch in response to the latter’s insults. Both drivers are notoriously hot-tempered, and their embattled history goes back to at least last year’s Daytona 500, where Busch wrecked Stewart and put both cars out of the race. During a separate incident last season, Busch slammed his car into Stewart’s pit area for a shouting match, nearly running down members of Stewart’s pit crew. Now both drivers have been ordered to steer clear of each other—and despite the put-it-behind-us rhetoric that their respective PR machines have been delivering, it’s clear that these two hot-heads will be beginning the ’08 season with a pretty deeply entrenched feud.